1. Field of the Invention
The invention refers to a process for continuously melting scrap and/or pig iron within a converter as well as to an apparatus for performing this process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are already known allothermic converter processes in which scrap is preheated and/or molten, noting that such processes are optionally performed with the addition of pig iron. Expensive tiltable furnaces have been proposed for performing such processes, noting that a substantial drawback of the known processes resides in the fact that they are discontinuously operated in batches, because the crucible comprises no devices whatsoever for continuously discharging the molten material.
Heating of the known allothermic furnaces for preheating scrap and/or molten material is, as a rule, effected by means of bottom nozzles blowing mixtures of carbon and oxygen into the bottom pool or by means of blowing fuels together with oxygen via a lance introduced from above.
The so-called KVA-process is performed with a metallic charge as well as with coal and additives, noting that it is known to supply in this KVA-process the required melting heat by means of burners being operated with natural gas and oxygen. The melting crucibles having been proposed up till now for the KVA-process comprise a taphole on the bottom, which taphole does, however, not provide the possibility of simple continuous operation. In these known processes it has already been possible to move mobile ladles in a position below the taphole, thereby discharging together with the molten bath also the slag and effecting slag removal from the subsequent ladle. On account of the taphole being provided on the bottom of the receptacle, only a small amount of slag could be retained within the melting receptacle or, respectively, melting crucible even in case of a tiltable melting crucible, so that, when continueing the melting process on a continuous basis, a corresponding amount of slag had to be produced for the purpose of obtaining a constant quality.